Amanda Smith
My Story I was born in Long Beach California and spent most of my life living in Torrance California. Growing up, I was the middle child, I have an older sister named Elissa and a younger brother named Daniel. Our pet dog was Chaos a German Sheppard and golden retriever mix. She lived 17 years and we spent the majority of our childhood growing up with her. Growing up, my family was extremely into sports. My sister started playing volleyball her freshman year of high school and I followed in her footsteps and started playing when I was nine years old. We both took the sport very seriously and traveled all over the United States competing in events like the Junior Olympics. I was lucky enough to win a bronze medal when I was 14 with my club team, Cal Jrs. My brother bounced around between different sports like basketball, football and track. Now I'm a college student at the Universty of Oklahoma. I still love sports and going to Dodger games with my family over the summer and attending OU football games when my parents come visit me. I am currently studying public relations and minoring in communications and I am hoping to someday work somewhere in poltics in the communications or public relations field. Diversity in my Family Growing up, I’ve always been surrounded by diversity. My father is black and my mother is white, so I divide my time between two different cultures. Growing up I remember having Sunday dinners eating soul food with my fathers side of the family and attending baseball games and having family picnic cook outs with my mother’s side of the family. The Bradfield's Story My mother’s side of the family came from England. My grandfather, Cyril, was born in 1919 to his parents Benjamin and Lucy Bradfield in Somerset England . In England Benjamin worked as a Stone Mason and Lucy was a stay at home mother. In 1920, my great grandparents made the decision to move to the United States because of the Great Depression in the United Kingdom. Benjamin and Lucy felt like their family would have a better future in the United States. My great grandparents took my grandfather and their two other sons and two daughters to North America by boat in 1920. The first placed they arrived was Sarnia, Ontario, Canada. My family then took a train to the United States and eventually made their way to Inglewood California where they settled down. In Inglewood, Benjamin worked as a storekeeper for an electric railing company. The family became naturalized citizens on June 13, 1923. My grandfather Cyril was a typical American citizen. He didn’t have a British accent since he moved to the United States when he was one year old. My grandfather went to Inglewood High School and graduated in 1937. After graduating form high school, he joined the Army Air Corp and served as a medic during WWII in India. After coming back from the war, my grandfather met my grandmother Evelyn. Together they had two kids my mother Mary and Uncle Gary, and three other son’s Richard, Ross and Jim from previous marriages. They chose to settle down in Carson California where my grandfather worked as a buyer and my grandmother worked as a computer operator. My mother Mary was born on December 21, 1961. She grew up in Carson California and attended high school at Carson High. After graduating high school, my mother attended school at Orange Coast Community College. My mother became pregnant with my sister Elissa when she was 20 years old. At 21, she became a single mother, a full time student and held a full time job to try and support my sister, herself and pay for school. She had aspirations of becoming an ultrasound technician and worked hard to accomplish that goal and to provide a better life for my sister and her. In 1989 my mother finished school and achieved her goal of becoming an ultrasound technician when my sister was six years old. She started out working as a technician at the Long Beach Memorial Hospital and eventually transferred over to the Torrance Memorial Hospital in 1990. Today she still works at Torrance Memorial Medical Center as a supervisor in the ultrasound department. The Smith's Story My father’s side came from Texas. My great grandfather’s name was Benny E. Smith and my great grandmother’s name was Onita McGary and they were both born and raised in Marietta, Texas. My great grandfather served in WWI and was known as someone who loved to sing and dance. After the war ended, Benny and Onita moved to Fort Worth Texas and eventually accomplished their life long dream of buying their own home by paying cash in 1939. In Fort Worth, Benny worked as a train porter for the railroads and Onita worked as a maid cleaning people’s houses. Together they had three sons Melvin, Bennie and Gene, my grandfather. My grandfather Gene was born in 1937 in Fort Worth Texas in. After graduating form high school in the Fort Worth area, my grandfather entered the air force and worked as a mechanic during the Korean War. Gene eventually met and married my grandmother Mildred who was from Phoenix Arizona. They spent a lot of their time traveling around the world because my grandfather was active in the air force. Between 1961 and 1963, they had my father Carlton and aunt and Francine, in Japan where they were stationed at the time. In 1964 they were relocate back in the United States. They spent the next 12 years living in North Carolina, Virginia, Louisiana and Arizona. In 1977 my grandfather retired from the air force and settled down in Carson, California. My grandfather spent the next 30 years working for http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Electric%7CGE and my grandmother worked as a telephone operator. My father Carlton attended high school at Carson High. He was known as a track star at the school. He won almost every event he ran in and made it all the way to the state championships. After graduating from high school her attended Long Beach Community college where he continued to run track. In 1984 he received an invitation to compete in the US Olympic trials for the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_Summer_Olympics%7C1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympic Games , but was unable to compete due to injury. After retiring from track, my father starting working for a consulting company named Secor, now known as Stantec. He started working on the environmental side of the company doing the labor work like digging ditches and taking ground water samples. He eventually worked his way up and became a supervisor for the companies environmental sector. My Parents Story My parents met in 1979 when they both attended Carson High. Even though they knew each other back in high school, they didn’t start dating until 1986. At that time my mother already had my older sister, so my father eventually became a father figure to her. When my parents first started dating, there was tension between my father and my grandfather Cyril because my father was black. My grandfather at first didn’t like my mother, a white woman, dating a black man. He didn’t even want my father to come around the house or be anywhere near him. My grandfather eventually had a change of heart after talking to my aunt Maryetta, his sister in law. My aunt had a conversation with my grandfather and told him that my dad made my mother happy and that he should be glad that my mother met somebody that makes her feel that way. He started to be more accepting of my father and eventually he let him into the family. My parents had me in 1991 and than my brother in 1993. They got married in 1997 and have been together ever since. Category:Students